Thursday, April 23, 2009

Shakespeare here

April 23 is the birthday of William Shakespeare. Hereth is perhaps his best known sonnet. Enjoyeth!

Sonnet 18

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Mr. Florian, I was wondering in your book, Comets, Stars, the Moon and Mars what type of lyrical poetry you would consider that.
Thank you
Sharon :)

Douglas Florian said...

Sharon, I would consider that lyrical celestial, as opposed to bestial.

Jon said...

have you heard the Marlowe-Shakespeare conspiracy theory???

I'm not sure if I believe it, but some argue that Marlowe's death was staged and that Shakespeare was "born" the very same day that Marlowe "died".

LINK

Kelly Polark said...

A very lovely sonnet indeed!
My 9 year old son has been wanting to read Shakespeare, but I'm afraid he's not ready for some of the themes quite yet! But your post reminded me I can read him excerpts or sonnets.

Anonymous said...

*sigh* Mister Shakespeare. I love the old 'guys' words, but then again I just love word.

TheObjectivist said...

marlowe-shakespeare.blogspot.com makes a great case for Marlowe writing Shakespeare.

Of all the authorship candidates, Marlowe was the only playwright - and a darn good one! Everyone, also, acknowledges "the great debt" Shakespeare owed Marlowe.

Add to that, Marlowe was a spy (well-documented) who had the means to fake his death. Why wouldn't he try to escape - he was charged with atheism and was certain to face the gallows (and he had the connections to pull off a staged death on May 30, 1593).

Daryl Pinksen's Marlowe's Ghost is an exceptional new book on all this, and the PBS/Frontline special Much Ado About Something addresses this very theory!

Give yourself a little time to study this theory, and you won't regret it!